1 Hour Tour + Blenheim

Question 1

ANGEL OF THE BROAD

Answer 1

7-foot-tall statue, iron, half a tonne, Antony Gormley (the Angel of the North).
Sits on top of Exeter, believed to be worth over £250,000.
Calls to police

Question 2

GENERAL

Answer 2

The city of dreaming spires (Victorian poet Matthew Arnold).
Population 160,000, 52nd largest city
Home to the University of Oxford, and as a result: scientific and technology based businesses, education and publishing.
Also car manufacturing since Morris Motors was established in 1910. The main production site for Mini cars.

Question 3

FILMING

Answer 3

Tomorrow Never Dies (Brasenose); 
•102 Dalmatians (Oxford Prison); 
•Lewis and Inspector Morse (killed off 81 Oxonians including three heads of colleges in his crime novels.); 
•X-Men: First Class 
•Doctor Strange (Exeter) Nov 2016 
•Transformers The Last Knight (Rad Cam)

Question 4

ORIGIN

Answer 4

Oxford was first settled in Saxon times (900AD): “Oxenaforda”, or “Ford of the Oxen”.
• There is an Oxford in New Zealand and Canada,
• 21 Oxfords in the United States, besides a Mount Oxford, two Lake Oxfords and Oxford County, Maine.

Question 5

OXFORD THROUGH THE WARS

Answer 5

• Oxford was heavily damaged during the Norman Invasion of 1066.
• Following the conquest, the town was assigned to a governor, Robert D’Oyly, who ordered the construction of Oxford Castle to confirm Norman authority.
• Hitler was intending to use Oxford as his capital, one of the reasons it was not bombed.
• Oxford was once the capital of England during the English Civil War. Charles I held his court here following his expulsion from London by the Parliamentarian forces lead by Oliver Cromwell. Oxford: Parliamentarian / University: king. From 1642 to 1646 King Charles stayed at Christ Church College.
• In North Oxford, there are two roads about two miles apart, running parallel to each other, that connect Woodstock Road and Banbury Road. Confusingly, the northernmost: South Parade and the southernmost: North Parade. During the Civil War when Oxford was being besieged by Cromwell, North Parade represented the King’s Northern Front, while South Parade was Cromwell’s Southern Front.

Question 6

UNIVERSITY

Answer 6

• No known date of foundation, evidence of teaching as far back as 1096 making it the oldest university in the English speaking world and the world’s second-oldest surviving university.
• Oxford’s earliest colleges were University College (1249), Balliol (1263) and Merton (1264), it now has 38.
• It wasn’t until 1878 that women were admitted to the university (Woooo LMH), 1920 when they were awarded degrees, now has 22,000 students.

Question 7

TOWN AND GOWN

Answer 7

often been uneasy.
• The University of Cambridge was actually founded by Oxford scholars who fled the first of many ‘Town versus Gown’ riots that erupted in i in 1209 following the murder of a local woman by students.

Question 8

ALUMNI

Answer 8

Oxford has educated many notable alumni, including
• 27 Nobel laureates,
• 27 Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom, and many foreign heads of state.
• 160 Olympic medals.

Students who receive a bachelor’s degree (BA) from Oxford are also given a complimentary masters degree (MA) four years later without the need to take any further exams.

Question 9

DUCKERS

Answer 9

• When Mr Ducker arrived in Oxford with his boot-making tools in 1898 he joined at least 20 other shoemakers in the city now there’s just one
• One of very few traditional hand-sewn shoemakers outside the West End of London.
• Customers include: JRR Tolkien, Rowan Atkinson and Jeremy Clarkson.

Question 10

THE BEAR INN

Answer 10

• The Bear Inn the oldest pub in Oxford, dating back to 1242. Although, it has had lots of different names, and the current building is only 17th century.
o The Dean of Worcester, records the proprietor of The Bear in 1583 had a bear named Furze.
o In the 18th century, served as the depot for the Oxford Machine coach, which carried passengers to London for a fare of 10 shillings
o It has a tremendous collection of over 4,500 snippets of club ties, started in 1952 by the landlord. Bereaved owners are given a free half pint.

Question 11

CHRISTCHURCH GENERAL

Answer 11

• Actual name: The Dean, Chapter and Students of the Cathedral Church of Christ in Oxford of the Foundation of King Henry the Eighth.
• Founded 1542.
• Second wealthiest college in Oxford, with an endowment just shy of half a billion.
• Christ Church has produced thirteen British prime ministers, more than any other Oxbridge college.

Question 12

CHRISTCHURCH IN LITERATURE

Answer 12

The Great Hall at Christ Church was used as inspiration for the Hogwarts dining hall in the Harry Potter films. The staircase leading up to the hall was actually used in several scenes in the films.

Alice, from Alice in Wonderland, was a real girl named Alice Liddell. She was the daughter of the Dean at Christ Church, who was a friend of Charles Dodgson (A.K.A. Lewis Carroll), who taught at the College.
• It is said that after enjoying Alice in Wonderland, Queen Victoria contacted Lewis Carroll to say that she would love to receive more of his books. Lewis promptly sent her the book he just completed: The Syllabus of Plane Algebraical Geometry.

Question 13

TOM TOWER

Answer 13

• Designed by Christopher Wren and built 1681–82.
• Rebuilt 52 churches the Great Fire in 1666, including St. Paul’s Cathedral, finished 1710.
• Great Tom, housed in the tower, is the loudest bell in Oxford.
o It weighs six and a quarter tons and was moved from the 12th-century Osney Abbey after the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Originally called “Mary”.
o Aside from a student prank in 2002 when the clapper was lagged, Tom has sounded every night since the Second World War.
o Great Tom is still sounded 101 times every night, which signifies the 100 original scholars of the college plus one (added in 1663).
o It is rung at 21:05 current UK time, which corresponds to 21:00 in “Oxford time”

Question 14

CARFAX

Answer 14

• The name “Carfax” derives from the Latin ‘quadrifurcus’ meaning four-forked via the French “Carrefour” meaning “crossroads”. It is all that remains of the 13th-century St Martin’s Church.
• The tower is 74 feet (23 m) tall, 99 steps to the top, and no building in central Oxford may be built higher than it.
• Considered to be the centre of the city. The University’s residence requirements are within 5 miles from Carfax.

The clock was designed by Sir Thomas Jackson (same as Bridge of Sighs).

Question 15

ST SCHOLASTICA

Answer 15

• began with an altercation when two students accused the landlord of serving them “indifferent wine” (Swindlestock Tavern, now Santander). The argument escalated until townsfolk came to the defence of the innkeeper. For three days they beat and killed students and ransacked the colleges.
o The city had to pay for repairs to the colleges, and every year from then on, the Mayor of Oxford had to pay a penny to the University for every life lost and attend a Mass for the souls of the dead scholars. The penance continued for 470 years, until the mayor refused to take part in 1825.
o There is no record as to whether the quality of wine improved.
The traditional night for conflict was November 5 (Bonfire Night), so both the University and the city council planned elaborate festivities for that night to distract people’s attention.

Question 16

RADCLIFFE CAMERA

Answer 16

• Camera: Latin for room – designed by James Gibbs and built in 1737–1749.
• The Library’s construction and maintenance was funded from the estate of John Radcliffe, a notable doctor, (attended University College from the age of thirteen, becoming a fellow of Lincoln College at eighteen) who left £40,000 upon his death in 1714.
• The building is the earliest example in England of a circular library.

Originally the library in the Radcliffe Camera held both scientific and general books, today the Camera functions as the main reading room of the Bodleian. The building holds 600,000 books in underground rooms beneath Radcliffe Square.

Question 17

BRASENOSE

Answer 17

• The college gets its name from the unusual bronze door knocker which is shaped like an animal’s snout (Brazen nose), which now hangs above the high table in the dining hall. The original door knocker dates back to the 11th century, and was stolen by students from Lincolnshire in 1334.
o It was only returned to Brasenose in 1890 when the college bought the whole of the thieving school just to reacquire the door knocker.

Question 18

EARLY BODLEIAN

Answer 18

Duke Humfrey’s Library is the oldest reading room in the Bodleian Library completed in 1488.
It is situated above the Divinity School, built between 1427 and 1483, it is the oldest surviving purpose-built building for university use, specifically for lectures and discussions on theology.

The late sixteenth century saw the library go through a period of decline: the library’s furniture was sold, and only three of the original books belonging to Duke Humfrey remained in the collection.

The Schools Quadrangle was built between 1613-1619
• The Tower of the Five Orders ornamented with the columns of each of the five orders of classical architecture: Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and Composite.

• In 1610, Bodley made an agreement with the Stationers’ Company.
• The Bodleian collection grew so fast that Bodley had an innovation to store books on their ends rather than on their sides; this not only allowed more books to fit in a smaller space but also made them more easily accessible. The head of the library is still called Bodley’s Librarian.

Question 19

BODLEIAN TODAY

Answer 19

• In 1914, the total number of books in the library’s collections breached the 1 million mark.
• The library currently holds over 12 million volumes, which occupy 160 miles of shelving.
• Each year, the collection grows by more than 100,000 books and nearly 200,000 periodicals; these volumes expand the shelving requirements by about 2 miles (3.3km) annually. Much of the library’s vast storage space is in underground tunnels built in the early 1900s. A system of conveyor belts delivers volumes through the tunnels to 29 reading rooms in the various library buildings.
• Every member of Oxford University upon joining the University swears an oath: ‘not to bring into the Library, or kindle therein, any fire or flame’.

Question 20

SHELDONIAN THEATRE

Answer 20

• The Sheldonian Theatre (1667) was the first major commission for an aspiring young architect named Christopher Wren.
• It is the official ceremonial hall of the University (matriculation/graduation) and can hold 1000 people.

Question 21

STONE HEADS

Answer 21

Christopher Wren commissioned 14 stone heads in 1669.
• Each is a head-and-shoulders sculpture of a male with a beard, placed on a tall square pillar. No one knows for certain who the heads were meant to represent. They have been variously called the Apostles or the Philosophers, but most commonly they are called the Emperors. Each head has a different beard and it has also been suggested they represent a history of beards.
• In the early 1700s, one of the heads had to be removed to make way for the Clarendon Building, but the remaining 13 lasted 200 years.
o Unfortunately, the replacements were made of poor quality stone and gradually eroded until they were called ‘the faceless Caesars’ and were taken down after 90 years in 1970
o The current set of heads is made of durable Clipsham stone and each head weighs one ton.

Question 22

BLACKWELLS

Answer 22

• Benjamin Blackwell founded his store in 1879 in a tiny building at 50 Broad Street which measured only 12 feet square, and held just 700 used books!
• The main store at 48-51 Broad Street is the largest Blackwell’s, holding 250,000 volumes, but there are also specialised stores. They excavated under neighbouring Trinity College Gardens.
• The largest single room devoted to book sales in Europe, the Norrington Room (10,000sq.ft.)

Question 23

TRINITY

Answer 23

• Despite its large size, the college is relatively small approximately 400.
• The fourteenth oldest surviving college, it reused and embellished the site of the former Durham College, Oxford.
• Opened 1555, Sir Thomas Pope created it as a Catholic college teaching only theology.
• It has been co-educational since 1979.

Question 24

TRINITY SIR RICHARD BURTON

Answer 24

• Sir Richard Burton attended in 1840,
o he rusticated and then he was permanently “sent down” and the story goes that he destroyed the college flower beds with his horse as a final act of provocation on his way out.
o Burton made his name with a journey to Mecca, disguised as a Muslim – no one knew he was English, reportedly speaking as many as 29 languages of them. An admired explorer, he was one of the first Europeans to travel to Africa to find the source of the Nile. Many papers from human behaviour to falconry,

Question 25

CLARENDON BUILDING

Answer 25

• The Clarendon Building was designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor and was built between 1711 and 1715, originally to house the printing presses of the Oxford University Press.
• In 2009 student demonstrators occupied part of the Clarendon Building for seven hours, following similar protests at other UK universities, called for the University to condemn Israel’s role in the Israel–Gaza conflict.

Question 26

BRIDGE OF SIGHS

Answer 26

• Joins two parts of Hertford College.
• The bridge is often referred to as the Bridge of Sighs, never intended to be a replica of the Venetian bridge, and indeed it bears a closer resemblance to the Rialto Bridge.
• Legend has it that many decades ago, a survey of the health of students was taken, and as Hertford College’s students were the heaviest, the college closed off the bridge to force them to take the stairs, giving them extra exercise. However, this is probably false: if the bridge is not used, the students actually climb fewer stairs than if they do use the bridge.

Question 27

BLENHEIM PALACE GENERAL

Answer 27

• The only non-royal non-episcopal country house in England to hold the title of palace.
• The palace, one of England’s largest houses, was built between 1705 and 1722, designated a World Heritage Site in 1987.

• Named after a town in Germany, following a battle fought in 1704, was a major battle of the War of the Spanish Succession. The building of the palace was a reward to John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough.

Designed in the rare, and short-lived, English Baroque style, architectural appreciation of the palace is as divided today as it was in the 1720s.
• Blenheim opened to the general public for the first time in 1950.
• The original gardens by Henry Wise, Queen Anne’s gardener, are said to have been designed in the formal style of the famed gardens of Versailles in France.

Question 28

BLENHEIM PALACE FAMILY

Answer 28

• Following the palace’s completion, it became the home of the Churchill, later Spencer-Churchill, family for the next 300 years, and various members of the family have wrought changes to the interiors, park and gardens. The palace is also notable as the birthplace and ancestral home of Sir Winston Churchill.
• At the end of the 19th century, the palace was saved from ruin by funds gained from the 9th Duke of Marlborough’s marriage to American railroad heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt.
• It is today home to the 11th Duke and Duchess of Marlborough.